Abstract

Despite much media and public criticism of megachurches, the strong preference of young adults for megachurches over small churches warrants further research. This study explores how megachurches have become an appealing religious space for young evangelical Protestants in South Korea by closely observing women adherents’ narratives. Drawing on in-depth interviews with millennial laypersons in South Korea, the findings of the study suggest that megachurch is a place to integrate youth culture through contemporary worship service and the recognition of transnational lifestyles and is perceived as shielding young people from hierarchical local culture, offering a room of privacy and enacting an egalitarian elder leadership. By focusing on how megachurches transition to meet the needs of changing religious consumers, such as millennials, this study suggests that the church’s efforts to recognize young millennials’ quest for individual autonomy and freedom was perceived positively compared with small local churches. Overall, this study offers a contextual meaning of the megachurch as a space where young people feel relatively free from an age-based hierarchy and collective culture but are actively recognized for their own secular youth culture to create sacred beliefs.